Tucker: The Man and His Dreams

TUCKER

Tucker: The Man and His Dream is easily the most underrated and the most charming of Francis Ford Coppola’s movies. He and Jeff Bridges, as Preston Tucker, put a smile on your face and keep you smiling throughout. Sticking to the basic bio, with a few embellishments for charm’s sake (like Dean Stockwell doing a cryptic Howard Hughes), this is a movie about a dream having become a joyous legend—promoting a car everyone wanted but virtually no one got and yet everyone still loved the dreamer for what he couldn’t quite deliver. Tucker, who died only 6 years after being acquitted of fraud (criminal charges instigated by a fearful Detroit), has been described by those who knew him as optimistic, a super salesman, ebullient, without a trace of malice shysterism, and just how Bridges portrays him. In addition, he and Joan Allen give 40s married life and love a nostalgic tingle, enhanced by the stylized golden photography of Vittorio Storaro and Dean Tavoularis’ evocative art direction. Tucker’s nemesis is cleverly played by Jeff’s dad Lloyd Bridges; with Martin Landau, Christian Slater and, as a maid, Patti Austin. Of the 50 Tuckers eventually made, 46 remain in drivable condition; meant to be priced at only a $1,000 each, the real cost—calculated on the roughly $29 million dollars Tucker raised through stock investing, franchises and other promotions—comes in at $510,000 per. Stockwell won the National Society of Film Critics and the N.Y. Film Critics Circle award for best supporting actor for this and Married to the Mob.

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ralphbenner@nowreviewing.com